USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Lincoln > Town Report on Lincoln 1915-1919 > Part 22
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Our High School Pupils
Interesting information regarding the comparative stand- ings of the Lincoln pupils at Concord High School and all other pupils attending there is given in CHART V below. This chart was completed from all marks issued at the Con- cord school for the month of November. From the total of all classes it is to be seen Lincoln pupils received a higher per cent. of passing marks during that month than did the other pupils at the school.
LINCOLN *
P
FAIR
GOOD
E
FRESHMEN
**
CONCORD
POOR
FAIR
GOOD
E
LINCOLN
POOR
FAIR
GOOD
SOPHOMORES
CONCORD
POOR
FAIR
GOOD
LINCOLN
POOR
FAIR
GOOD
JUNIORS
CONCORD
FAIR
GOOD
LINCOLN
FAIR
GOOD
E
SENIORS
CONCORD
FAIR
GOOD
E
LINCOLN
FAIR
GOOD
B
TOTAL, ALL
CLASSES
CONCORD
POOR
FAIR
GOOD
E
Marks contained in black squares are below passing.
* Pupils attending from Lincoln. ** All other pupils.
P = POOR. " Scale of per centages used.
5% 10%
Chart V
153
Graphic Presentation of Distribution of Scholar- ship Marks for November at Concord High
School
154
In the same manner, the freshmen and senior classes from Lincoln excel the freshman and senior classes attend- ing Concord High School from Concord and other towns. The sophomores, on the other hand, to.a lesser and the juniors to a greater degree fall behind their Concord classmates.
In reading CHART V the black areas represent marks below passing. The white areas, then, contain the passing marks; and the town which has the greatest total of white area has the greatest per cent. of total passing marks. CHART VI below gives the actual percentages on which CHART V was based.
Chart VI Distribution of Scholarship Marks for November at Concord High School
V.
P.
F.
G.
E.
FRESHMEN
Lincoln
0.0%
4.3%
36.2%
48.9%
10.6%
Concord
0.2
15.4
46.6
31.4
6.4
SOPHOMORES
Lincoln
0.0
20.4
36.4
43.2
0.0
Concord
0.6
18.8
43.4
34.3
2.9
JUNIORS
Lincoln
0.0
15.4
61.5
23.1
0.0
Concord
0.0
8.9
45.2
42.2
3.7
SENIORS
Lincoln
0.0
0.0
45.2
51.6
3.2
Concord
0.0
5.7
35.6
54.5
4.2
ALL CLASSES
Lincoln
0.0
10.1
42.6
43.2
4.1
Concord
0.2
12.6
43.2
39.5
4.5
V=Very poor. P .= Poor.
Both are below passing.
155
Your superintendent has, this year, endeavored to give the Lincoln pupils attending Concord and Waltham High Schools some supervision from their home town. This work early made it clear that even a very little encourage- ment and assistance would serve to help many of them greatly. Several have availed themselves regularly of help offered, stopping at the Lincoln Center School on their way home from Concord. A great handicap in this work was the absence of any lighting system in the Center School. Once or twice an attempt was made to light the blackboard in one of the rooms with an oil lamp, but this was given up. Thereafter your superintendent went to the home of the pupil who wished assistance when they could no longer see to work at the school. It is much to be regretted that a building otherwise comparatively up-to-date should be so antiquated in the detail of complete absence of an artificial lighting system.
Transportation to and from Concord and Waltham has furnished a serious problem for our high school pupils, this year. With the railroad service so completely demoralized that it is not uncommon for trains to be two hours or more late, we must bear in mind the possibility or even the prob- ability that we shall have to furnish another form of trans- portation in the near future. It would not be much more expensive to purchase and operate an automobile bus ·than it is now to pay railroad fares. Certainly the service would be better. The experience of the town of Chelmsford as reported by Superintendent Putney in the January number of the American School Board Journal will indicate what can be done even when it is necessary to hire a chauffeur on full time for the work. In Lincoln this would not be neces- sary as chauffeur, repair service and supply service could all be contracted for with the local garage.
156
Like the elementary school pupils, the Lincoln high school pupils are lacking in a feeling of unity. They re- gard themselves as Concord or Waltham students with no further responsibilities towards this town. The condition is, of course, the natural one in the circumstances of their attendance on Concord and Waltham schools.
Perhaps the most effective way of combatting this is to organize them here at home into some sort of unit which will keep alive their sense of belonging to Lincoln and their interest and pride in Lincoln. It was your superin- tendent's plan to make an effort in this direction by initiat- ing a social organization backed by the parents which would meet regularly in an informal way and provide the social good times which are at present so rare among the young people of the town. He is obliged to leave this to the parents or to his successor, with the hope that its import- ance may be understood clearly enough to forbid its being pushed aside and forgotten.
Over-Age Pupils
In CHART VII, which appears below, the ages and grades of all Lincoln elementary and high school pupils are given. They deserve close attention for several reasons, chief of which is the high per cent. of over-age pupils which the figures reveal.
Chart VII Age-Grade Distribution of Pupils in Lincoln Schools
given grade indicate the number of pupils in that grade of First, a word of explanation. The numbers opposite any
AGES
11
12
13
14
15
16 BG
17 BG
18
19
6
-
-
- -
-
-
-
-
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
3 3
2 2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
GRADE V
1 2
5 6
4 3
2 2
1
1
1
GRADE VI -
1
3
3 1
4 3
1 2
1
1
GRADE VII -
1
4
2 2
2 1
2
2
GRADE VIII
-
-
1
-
1
5
1
3
HIGH SCHOOL IX -
1
3 2
2 3
1
1
HIGH SCHOOL X
1
4 5
1
1
1
1
1
HIGH SCHOOL XI -
1
1
1 2
1 ʻ
1
1
HIGH SCHOOL. XII
3
2
1
2
1
1
I
1
1
-
1
1
-
-
1
1
1
1
1
1
GRADE | 1 4 12 8 |
4
1
1
1
1
1
3
8 3
GRADE II -
-
1
-
2 1
GRADE III
GRADE IV -
3 3 10 4
1 1
2 1
1
1
-
I
-
1
1
-
-
1
1
B=Boys. G=Girls. Black lines enclose pupils of normal ages for their grade. Pupils to right of black lines are over-age. Pupils to left are under-age. Figures indicate number of pupils of given age in grade at beginning of present school year.
157
-
GRADES
-
1
1
1
BG
BG
BGBG
BG
BG
BG
10 BG
1
-
-
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
158
various ages. For instance : in Grade I there were on Sep- tember 1, one boy and four girls who were five years of age, 12 boys and eight girls who were six years of age, and four boys who were seven years of age. The letters B and G at the heads of the columns indicate respectively, Boys and Girls. The black lines enclose all pupils who are of what we may call normal age, for which two years are al- lowed in each grade. For instance, in the first grade pupils of five or six are classed as normal ; in the second grade pu- pils of six and seven ; and so on.
Of the 162 elementary school pupils listed, 57 are over the normal age for their grade and one is below the normal age. This means 35.4% are over-age-better than one in three. The per cent. of over-age pupils in the city of Rock- land, Maine, last year was only 17.9%,-about one-half as great. Of these over-age Lincoln pupils, 32 were one year over the normal age, 20 were two years, four were three years, and one was six years. This means a wastage of 90 pupil years in our little school. It means that if none of these pupils is held back further and if none is discour- aged and drops out of school as a result, a total of 90 years of earning power has been completely lost and a total of 90 years of added expense for instruction in our schools put in its place. So important an item as this should be enough to convince us of the vital necessity of eliminating as much as possible of this wastage by the efficiency of our instruction and the closer adaptation of our school work to the personal needs of the pupil. We could reasonably ex- pect in time to cut this loss in half.
Of the 38 high school pupils, 15 were over-age, which is 39.5%, or two out of five. Nine of these were one year over-age, three were two years and three were three years.
159
The Homes and the School
So far this report has answered the first three questions it set for itself. The fourth was: How have the Lincoln school interests been made Lincoln home interests? The answer is that only rudimentary progress has been made in that direction, but that this has been progress, we think, of the right sort.
On Monday, November 19, the parents were invited to the school for an informal meeting with the teachers. This was preceded by a brief talk on the work in musical appre- ciation we are doing in the upper grades. Following this opportunity was given for conferences with the teachers on the work individual sons and daughters were doing.
Again on Monday, December 17, the parents were in- vited to meet with the teachers. Most unfortunately this meeting could not be held at the school because of the absence of lighting there. It was held in the lower town hall, instead, and a motion picture machine for school use was demonstrated and explained. This meeting also included opportunity for conferences with the teachers. The fact that the school records were not at hand, as they would have been could the meeting have been held at the school. proved somewhat of a handicap.
It is most desirable that these meetings be continued and their attendance increased. It is the parents who know the children, and only as they strive to impart this knowl- edge to the teacher are they doing their best for the school interests of the child. In the same way the teachers could give the parents interesting information concerning the chil- dren as scholars. Such exchanges make for added efficiency both in school and in home by making these interests coop- erate rather than, as they often do, conflict.
It would be well, too, if more fathers could be actively interested in the work of their children in the schools.
160
There should also be some effort to organize the fathers and mothers of pupils attending high school from Lincoln in the interests of closer cooperation with the teachers at Concord and Waltham.
Our Teaching Staff
It will be seen from CHART VIII that our situation in the Lincoln Center School as regards the average number of pupils per teacher is most favorable when compared with the situation in the 22 cities and towns located about us. In CHART VIII, "median," it will be remembered from the explanation of CHART II, means that score which stands in the middle with as many scores better as there are poorer. The quartile medians are the scores which stand in the middle of the better half and in the middle of the poorer half of the group. Lincoln, with an average of 26 pupils per teacher, it will be observed, stands in the upper quarter of this group of cities and towns.
161
Chart VIII
Pupils Per Teacher in Lincoln and Surrounding Towns, in Order of Their Rank
Weston 23
Carlisle
23
Sudbury 25
*LINCOLN
26
Wellesley
27
Wayland Quartile Median 30
Acton
31
Waltham 32
Concord 32
Winchester 34
Stow
35
Billerica Median 36
Bedford 37
Belmont
37
Framingham 37
Wilmington
38
Maynard 39
Arlington Quatrile Median 39
Watertown 40
Medford 42
Lexington 43
Needham
43
Natick
45
*At opening of winter term, Jan. 7, 1918.
It will be interesting in this and the charts which follow to compare the standings of Lincoln and Weston. Both are towns of unusual rank. They should be rivals for first
162
place among the towns of the state in their educational pro- visions as well as in their civic management.
The current school year in Lincoln opened with five full- time teachers teaching eight grades. The seventh and eighth grades, numbering 30, were in one room under Miss Strong. The fifth and sixth grades, numbering 46, were in one room under Miss Tyler. The second and third grades were in one room under Miss Bowker and numbered 29. The fourth grade with 27 pupils and the first grade with 29 were by themselves, in charge respectively of Miss Keith and Miss Heath.
It was soon clear that the overcrowded condition of the fifth and sixth grades must be remedied if anything like efficient work was to be done. At a meeting of your com- mittee held Wednesday, October 24, the situation was pre- sented and the conclusion reached that the manual training must be removed to a basement room to make possible a division of the two grades. The employment of a new teacher was authorized to take the sixth grade pupils, Miss Tyler preferring to keep her fifth grade.
On the afternoon of the same day the contractor was on hand to measure the basement room to be fitted for manual training. The following morning the lumber was at the school, and on Monday, October 29, three school days later, Miss Jennie Wheaton was teaching the sixth grade in their new room, and the manual training had been shifted.
Our full-time teachers, in order of seniority of service in Lincoln, are as follows :
Miss Hattie Heath, graduate of Quincy Training School, now teach- ing her 20th year in Lincoln, Grade I.
Miss Helen Bowker, graduate of Fitchburg Normal Special and Concord Training School course, now since her resignation at Christ- mas, Mrs. Frank Burrill, teaching her fifth year at Lincoln at time of hér resignation. Grades II and III.
163
Miss Helen Strong, graduate of Tilton Seminary and Framingham Normal, now teaching her third year at Lincoln. Grades VII and VIII.
Miss Gladys Tyler, graduate of Bridgewater Normal, now teaching her second year in Lincoln. Formerly Grades V and VI; now Grade V.
Miss Georgianna Keith, graduate of Lowell Normal three-year course, teaching her first year in Lincoln. Grade IV.
Miss Jennie Wheaton, graduate of Framingham Normal, teaching her first year in Lincoln. Began service October 29. Formerly Grade VI; now Grades II and III.
Miss Anna Strid, graduate of Bridgewater Normal and Palmer School of Penmanship, teaching her first year in Lincoln. Began service January 7. Grade VI.
Special Problems Resulting from Building
This brings us to question six of those which this report aims to answer : In what way has the Lincoln Center school building presented problems and how have they been met?
Our first problem was lack of room. All of the six class- rooms in the building were in use at the beginning of the year, and another was necessary if we were to divide grades V and VI. How this problem was solved by pre- paring a basement room for the manual training and using the room formerly devoted to this work for grade VI has already been explained. We are still lacking in room, how- ever, and our present need is an assembly hall. This prob- lem has already been discussed in our discussion of the needs of the elementary school children.
Another problem was the poor system of lighting. All rooms are lighted by the unilateral system,-that is, the windows are placed in one wall of the room. In every case this wall is on the south. Direct sunlight, as a result, enters the classroom at all hours on clear days, and direct sunlight, unfortunately, causes serious strains when re- flected from desks and walls and books into the pupils' eves. The alternative, on clear days, is to lower the cur-
164
· tains enough to keep the direct rays from reaching these desks, walls or books, and again eye-strain results from the darkened condition of the room.
It was not, of course, possible for us to correct this con- dition by adding windows at the back of the room or by making the unilateral lighting come from the north side where there would be less direct sunlight! Our solution had to accept conditions as they were and build upon them. After some experimenting, it was decided to apply a ma- terial known as "white frosting" to the upper halves of the windows. This gave a ground glass effect, admitting the light but diffusing it. It was thus possible to light the rooms properly on sunny days by raising the curtains from the bottom of the windows to cut off the direct sunlight through the lower sash, while diffused light entered through the frosted upper sashes. To the teachers who had to partly face these windows the white glare proved especially trying. This was remedied as far as possible by lowering the curtains at the bottom of the windows as soon as the sun was high enough, and drawing the upper curtains over the frosted sash.
Your superintendent has already told of his efforts to light the blackboard in one of the classrooms by means of an oil lamp in order to see while giving help to high school pupils. The same system of lighting is necessitated in his office on dark days and during the late afternoon, and in the boiler room in the early morning and the late afternoon. This has been another of our serious problems. We should have electricity put into the building at once. It is needed for the reasons mentioned above. It is needed if the build- ing, which must be heated 24 hours each day, is to be used for any other than the most limited classroom activities. And it is needed if we are to install the inexpensive, reliable type of clock which your committee has in mind to replace
165
those now in use which are frequently out of running order and which are rather expensive to repair.
A change which it would be well to bear in mind to make at an early opportunity would be the removal of the glass now used in the doors of the various classrooms. An article in the December issue of the American School Board Journal says: "A glass door is objectionable for other reasons than its continual menace to the safety of teacher and child. It renders impossible the schoolroom privacy so essential to accomplishing the best work." The same article says a few lines further on, "Perhaps the most tantalizing of all the outside interruption, is the practice of acrobatic stunts in the corridor by the older boys." And such things, be it said, will happen in the best regulated families !
The best argument against the use of glass in the school- room door is the danger of injury to pupil or teacher if it is broken. Cases of the sort have occurred and have meant damage suits against the town.
"When the need of light in a corridor," the article in the American School Board Journal concludes, "is imperative, it can be transmitted by means of frosted wire glass. Most of the new school buildings have their corridors lighted electrically."
Lincoln was, unfortunately, no exception to the general rule that the unusual cold of the Christmas holidays was expensive to the schools through frozen plumbing. This was despite the fact that more coal was burned than during any similar period while school was in session during the current year. It would be wise, next year, in the interests of both coal and plumbing conservation to drain all pipes at the beginning of the Christmas vacation, empty the boilers and draw the fires.
On September 20 of the current year all the fire hose .with which each floor of the building is equipped was tested
166
under full pressure and found to be in good condition. It is urged that this hose should be tested yearly at the begin- ning of the year. The trial in September was the first which had been made since its installation.
Fire drills were held without previous warning to pupils or teachers on the following dates, emptying the building completely in the times given :----
October 8, 1 min. 5 sec. November 8, 50 sec. January 18, 45 sec.
Pyrene extinguishers have been ordered for each floor for use, if needed, for smaller blazes when use of the large fire hose might cause unnecessary damage from water.
Our Financial Situation
The last of the seven questions which this report aims to answer relates to our financial situation. CHART IX will give a first impression of our financial ability in terms of actual assessed valuation per capita in Lincoln and sur- rounding towns. The median, it will be remembered again, is the mid-measure of the group, and the quartile medians are the mid-measures of the upper and lower halves of the group.
167
Chart IX Per Capita Wealth of Lincoln and Surrounding Towns, in Order of Their Rank
Weston $5,446
Wellesley 3,390
LINCOLN 3,233
Winchester 1,974
Lexington
1,845
Billerica Quartile Median 1,781
Wayland 1,671
Belmont 1,581
Bedford 1,568
Concord
1,551
Needham
1,485
Sudbury Median 1,394
Arlington 1,308
Watertown 1,290
Carlisle 1,238
Framingham 1,219
Acton 1,171
Waltham Quartile Median 1,101
Medford 1,093
Stow 1,030
Wilmington 940
Natick
864
Maynard
631
With a per capita wealth of $3,233 Lincoln stands third among the 23 cities and towns in this immediate vicinity. It is over five times as wealthy as Maynard with its $631 per capita. Weston, with nine times the wealth of May- nard, stands at the head of the list.
168
Since school finances depend, however, on the wealth per pupil in the schools and since a large proportion of school children in the total population makes this sometimes differ widely from the situation shown by per capita wealth tables, CHART X will more accurately reveal our financial stand- ing for school purposes. CHART X shows these same towns arranged in the order of actual assessed valuation per pupil in grammar and high schools.
Chart X Per Pupil Wealth of Lincoln and Surrounding Towns, in Order of Their Rank
Weston $37,849
LINCOLN
26,804
Wellesley
20,436
Bedford
13,631
Winchester
11,729
Waltham Quartile Median 11,022
Wayland 10,517
Carlisle
9,629
Sudbury
9,605
Belmont 9,016
Lexington
8,602
Acton Median 8,597
Concord
8,522
Watertown 8,410
Billerica
8,365
Needham
7,719
Framingham
6,955
Arlington Quartile Median 6,667
Medford
5,891
Stow
5,607
Natick
5,145
Wilmington 4,219
Maynard
3,537
169
In this chart Lincoln stands second as a result of the fact that its proportion of school children to the total popula- tion is smaller than Wellesley's. Compared with Maynard its position is also more favorable than as shown in CHART IX. Lincoln has over seven times as much tax- able property from which to provide for the education of each child in her schools as has Maynard. Weston has over 10 times as much as Maynard.
Compare Lincoln, however, with Acton,-the median or middle city listed in CHART X, neither an extreme of wealth or of poverty. Lincoln is three times as wealthy, in terms of wealth per pupil. An appropriation for school purposes equal per thousand of valuation to that of Acton would, then, bring us three times as much money per pupil. The same is true as regards the comparison between Lin- coln and Lexington.
Remembering these figures and turning to CHART XI, below, it will at once be clear why the schools of Lincoln have been so light a burden upon the tax-payers of Lincoln and how greatly that burden could be increased before we would be carrying the same load as Watertown, even,-the lower quartile median of the towns surrounding us. Lex- ington is an example of what the taxpayer is called upon to pay in the middle-ranking town of the 23 in this imme- diate vicinity.
Since, then, we can expand our school appropriation $1.09 per thousand and still stand very near the bottom of the list of towns about us, we should be ready to listen favorably to any request for improvement in our school sys- tem which offered a reasonable educational return at least until compliance with such a request seemed more likely to take us out of this favorable group of towns having low tax rates for school purposes than at present.
170
Chart XI Tax for School Purposes Per $1,000 Actual Valu- ation in Lincoln and Surrounding Towns, in Order of Their Rank
Maynard $8.91
Wilmington 8.06
Acton 6.98
Natick 6.51
Arlington
6.10
Stow Quartile Median 6.05
Medford 5.84
Concord 5.50
Needham 5.39
Framingham
5.34
Sudbury
5.31
Lexington Median 5.17
Wayland 5.12
Billerica 4.82
Bedford
4.74
Carlisle
4.49
Waltham
4.45
Watertown Quartile Median 4.43
Belmont
4.39
Winchester 4.32
LINCOLN
3.34
Wellesley
3.07
Weston
2.47
Our apportionment of school expenditures for the year ending June 30, 1917, compared with the eight Massachu- setts towns most nearly like Lincoln in population and not supporting high schools is shown in CHART XII, below. The items worth noting are the following :-
171
A smaller proportion of the Lincoln appropriation was applied to actual instruction than of the appropriations of any of these towns except North Reading. This is ex- plained by the fact that only one other devotes as large a per cent. of its appropriation to transportation as we do. That town is Sunderland and the per cent. is 30. Lincoln is also next to the highest in per cent. of appropriation de- voted to tuition in other schools, with 21 per cent. Geo- graphical conditions which cannot be met efficiently in any other way at present are responsible for this condition in Lincoln.
172
Chart XII Apportionment of School Funds in Lincoln and Towns of Approximately the Same Popu- lation Not Supporting High Schools
General
Control
Instruction
Operation of
School Plant
Health
Promotion
Miscellaneous
Transportation
Tuition
Westwood
4%
43%
14%
. .
2%
16%
20%
Bedford
5
41
19
. .
2
12
21
Southwick
10
63
9
1%
9
8
Mattapoisett
6
53
20
. .
1
19
. .
LINCOLN
4
35
. 9
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